Page 5 - 1992 Mountaineering Club Review

What ani I doing here? The mist is swirling in ominously, the Club’s altimeter has just gone round the clock at 6000 metres and my entire family (front-pointing and hard hatless) are being bombarded by large lumps of ice dislodged with chaotic abandon by frantic Italians. The sirdar had been hit and is in a bemused stale. We are on Island Peak at over 20,000 feet and life is exciting - but it all started many weeks before in a grey MOD office.
The British Services 1992 Everest Expedition’s Higher Management Committee decided to take an active part in Nepal during the closing stages of the main expedition. We had hoped, as a long shot, to be at Base Camp during assault bids, and so this aim was a priority. An assorted 12-strong party gathered at Gatwick on 1 May, with ages ranging from 18 to 58, and experience from nil to considerable. We had the HMC Chairman, Air Marshal Sir Ken HAYR, the RAF Appointer Air Vice Marshal Bob HONEY and Mrs D HONEY, Dougie KEELAN, Sue + 2 family and myself, Fleur + 2 family, and Mrs Pru ROSS. The whole team staggered onto the Royal Nepal Airlines flight from KATHMANDU with multi-kiloed “hand luggage” and anoraks bulging, but were still over allowance. (It subsequently transpired that the Air Marshal had packed a portable shower, somewhat lighter my daughter Kim had packed a banned “Snoopy”, later to reach over 20,000 feet (by Sherpa).) However, ground staff were sympathetic, no excess charges, and soon we were slumped in our seats, heading over Hungary and Dubai, gin and tonic in hand, no more planning to do, a great feeling of release.
I can thoroughly recommend the Summit Hotel in KATHMANDU. We were looked after very well during a two day sojourn sorting out kit and trekking and mountaineering permits, and they did all our logistical planning for us. KATHMANDU was quiet, very quiet, everything shut and a sullen feel in the air. Four weeks before may people had died in riots, and a big demo was planned during our time there. It was in total contrast to the hustle, bustle and colours of our visit four years before and incongruous to see hammer and sickle banners carried by the demonstrators. In the event the day passed peacefully enough but we were glad to return to the sanctity of the Summit whence we should not have strayed.
The flight to the mountain airstrip at LUKLA fulfilled our worst expectations. Having waited five house at KATHMANDU while rumour and counter-rumour abounded (no official information) it transpired that no planes could get through low cloud and rain. A bad omen, only three weeks before no planes had got in for 10 days because of smoke haze from forest fires, and an angry backlog had built up at LUCKLA, which has no road out. Included in this was a group who had gone to find peace, solace, and love everyone in the world at TENGBOCHE Monastery - five days wail at LUCKLA had destroyed their tranced state of mind and this flower party were described as murderous. Oh well, back to the Summit pool, more beer, and try again the next day.
Glorious morning n the 5th, looking good, and soon we were approaching the LUCKLA strip.
angled at 10$ upwards, 400 metres long (at most) and with sheer cliff instead of a run-out it is pretty committing but exciting, and we disgorged with relief to meet our sirdar, Sonam, and, wait for it, twelve yaks, 18 porters, 6 cook boys! Did we really need all these? It soon turned out that we did, and two hours later after a lot of shouting, ropework and mud over everything, the motley caravan set off for PHAKDING in the DUDH KOSI valley.
At this point I will spare the reader a somewhat tedious chronological sequence of events which can stultify expedition reports. Suffice it to say within the next 10 days all but two of the party (one of whom had a mild form of pneumonia) reached Everest Base Camp at 17,600 feet - on different days since die variation in ages and fitness resulted in radical discrepancies in “speed of advance”. I feel the achievement of the BC goal to be of great credit to several members of the party, one of whom had never even camped before, let alone climbed or trekked. However, I must advise that the whole Himalayan scene is big and it pays to get really fit first.
The days had settled into a loose routine. “Bed tea” at 0530, washing water at 0600. Porters shake snow off tents (several inches overnight on occasions - not expected), shivering start. Massive breakfast three hours down the trail - "do not overtake the cook boys"!, complete walking day between 2 and 5, climb quickly into sleeping bags to thaw out, supper, bed at 7, bed-sores, rock hard ground. In short the mornings were generally sunny and pleasant, the afternoons overcast or cloudy, cold, and frankly a bit boring.
The lasting memories, though, will be of the superb colouring of hill sides and ravines glowing luscious pink with thousands of rhododendron bushes and other flowers, multi-tinted and tuneful birds, smiling Nepalese (at least looking a little more prosperous), the bells of hundreds of yaks plodding their stoic way with huge loads, and the Buddhist reveille in the Sherpa capital, NAMCHE BAZAAR. The latter consisted of extraordinary cacophony of sound starting at 5 a.m. which we originally assumed to be a pneumatic drill or generator with worn bearings. It turned out to emanate from a batch of alpenhoms protruding from the monastery window, at the other end of which could just be discerned inscrutable monks with an interesting sense of humour.
We had two rest days at 13,00 and 16,00 feet to acclimatise, but several members of the party went climbing during them, it is important not to bash straight on up. We saw cases of people suffering badly from altitude sickness, and indeed one American party was down to 50% of starters on its fifth day. Some of us took Diamox to aid acclimatization. This is a personal matter but if anything those not taking it fared slightly better than those who did, but the sample was too small to be definitive. It was, however, useful as an antidote on the few occasions when AS symptoms developed.
Base Camp on 12 May was extraordinary. Placed a few yards from the icefall it was a colourful place with at least twelve expeditions from a
variety of countries strewn around the rocky glacier. Not as messy as made out, far from it, tidy and cheerful. It was quite a day to be there, too. Somewhere between 36 and 42 people got to the summit that day (queuing at the Hilary Step and several having paid 25,000 as commercial “clients”), and all round the camp spontaneous cheering would break out as news came in of success. Lest we should feel that Everest has been tamed, though, it should be mentioned that the parties had to pass the frozen stiff bodies of two italian climbers who had died of exposure near the South Col two days before.
We were received by Bronco “Rottweiler” LANE (Summiteer in 1976) and BSEE expedition members at Base Camp and I was able to pass on the Club’s good wishes to the team on the mountain by radio - and in to the Hombeim Couloir where good work was being dome setting up ropes above Camp 5.
We had to get out of their hair the next day though, and yomped down to Gorak Shep and up to rock peak KALA PATAR (on Pomori’s SE ridge) at
18,500 feet. Here there are stupendous views, possibly unmatched anywhere, and it was a delight to watch the changing hues and cloud formations on the highest peaks in the world.
The last objective was Island Peak (Imja Tse) over 20,000 feet. This was a mini-expedition in itself, setting up a base camp in a snowstorm, (the traditional site for this has been changed following a tragic accident by a freak avalanche to an RAF party a few years ago - we rebuilt the memorial en route) and pressing on the next day to a high camp on the mountain flank at over 19,000 feet. What a plod! 3000 feet of steep (but easy) ground with the thin air unfriendly to middle-aged lungs. But the camp itself was worth the effort, its outstanding position giving glimpses of Ama Dablant (not much higher), Makalu (much higher), Baruntse (miles of fluted ice).
Easy scrambling on rock following a pre-dawn start saw us onto the glacier by 0700, and soon we had roped up and were negotiating enormous cavernous crevasses before the Island Peak final 100m ice slope came into view, so did the Italians, making a meal of it. Not technically hard but certainly steep, the Latins were Hailing wildly and the ice did not like it Here is where the story started. With less than 300 feet to the summit it was a difficult decision, but with some of the party very tired from the climb and altitude (and the previous 14 days exertions involving a 100 miles of walking and 25,000 feet of climbing) it was clear that to enable a small strong team to make the summit safely some would have to forego the opportunity. Thus it was that I with three others retreated, leaving Dougie KEELAN, his son
James, and my son Sam (who had started his Alpine career on JSAM aged lo with a climb of the 400m Allalinhom) to climb unroped quickly along the exposed knife-edged ridge to the top in a white-out. The third objective achieved - a team success!
ANNUAL REVIEW
EVEREST BASE CAMP, KALA PATAR, ISLAND PEAK (IMJA TSE - 20,300 FEET)
By Malcolm RUTHERFORD - President, RNRMMC - May 1992
THE ROYAL NAVY & ROYAL MARINES MOUNTAINEERING CLUB
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